This is another one of Stainer’s chocolate bars blended with herbs and spices (part of the same family as the White Chocolate with Madras Spice), and the ‘subtitle’ says it’s a speciality of Northern Europe. As you can see, it also comes in a beautifully illustrated box, just like it’s counterpart.

As I mentioned in my review of the alcoholic bars, most of the Stainer chocolate I’ve seen (and the majority of those currently in my possession) come in lavishly illustrated boxes, quite unlike anything I’ve seen before.

The cocoa content is a respectable 43%, and the herbs and spices in question are:
Coriander, Cinnamon, Cardamom, Ginger, Caraway, Cloves, Nutmeg and Anis.

Quite a serious amount of extra flavours there, and given that they were blended with milk rather than dark chocolate, I was curious as to whether the spices would overpower the chocolate.

The first flavours to come out are the nutmeg and cinnamon. The milk chocolate is quite rich, not entirely dissimilar to Cocopia’s Ghanaian slab in both texture and flavour, but obviously with an undercurrent of warmth and a slightly spicy tang.

The overall flavour is interesting but not electrifyingly different. Minute fragments of the herbs and spices accompany the last traces of melting chocolate, but never detract from the overall taste, which is a bit like the very disappointing M&S bar I had around Christmas time, but with a much more pleasant and subtle blend of flavours.

It’s definitely not horrible, but at the same time it didn’t have me wanting more. The combination of flavours left me wondering what the chocolate would have tasted like on it’s own. Mildly disappointing, a little odd, but still a very good milk chocolate.